Cartoon All-Stars To The Rescue
Cartoon All-Stars To The Rescue is a 1990 American animated drug-abuse prevention television special starring many of the popular cartoon characters from American weekday, Sunday morning, and Saturday morning television at the time of the film's release. A crossover of various many different beloved children's cartoon stars like Bugs Bunny, the muppet babies, and Garfield step out of the universes of their imaginary worlds to join forces to convince a teenager that drugs aren't cool. About it The plot chronicles the exploits of Michael, a young teenage boy who is using marijuana and stealing his father's beer. His younger sister, Corey, is constantly worried about him because he started acting differently. When her piggy bank goes missing, her cartoon tie-in toys come to life as magical hallucinations to help her find it. After discovering it in Michael's room along with his stash of drugs, the various cartoon characters proceed to work together and take him on a fantasy journey to teach him the risks and consequences a life of drug use can bring. In Corey's bedroom, an unseen person steals her piggy bank from her dresser early in the morning. The theft is witnessed by Papa Smurf, who emerges from a smurfs comic book with the other smurfs and alerts the other cartoon characters in the room: Garfield as a lamp, ALF from a framed picture, baby Kermit as an alarm clock, Winnie the Pooh as a doll, Alvin and the chipmunks from a record sleeve, and Slimer who passes through a wall. The cartoon characters track down the thief and discover that it is Corey's big brother, Michael. Meanwhile, Corey confronts Michael and expresses her concerns about his change in behavior, as he hides a box from her. However, our assortment of animated icons open a box under Michael's bed to find plenty of drug-related paraphernalia, which Simon identifies as marijuana. Michael, realizing his eyes look terrible, puts on a pair of shades and storms out of the house in a huff. The cartoon characters quickly realize that something must be done about his addiction and they set off, leaving Pooh behind to look after Corey. Michael begins his descent into reefer madness by stumbling upon some older "cool" kids smoking behind a building and being peer pressured into taking his first hit. Seeing these cool kids doing their thing, Michael obnoxiously greets the group with "You guys cruising for lung cancer or what?" At the arcade, Michael smokes pot with his old "friends" and "Smoke", an anthropomorphic cloud of marijuana smoke. They tempt him to try crack however before he does they run out and are chased into an alleyway by a policeman. The "policeman" is then revealed to be Bugs Bunny wearing a policeman's hat. Bugs tries to ask how Michael got involved with drugs. Michael, angered that Bugs is in his business, tries to get away. But Bugs traps Smoke in a garbage can and uses a time machine that he borrowed from Wile E. Coyote to see when and how Michael's addiction started. It all started two years ago when Michael was seriously peer pressured at the park to the point that he had to do drugs with his friends. Meanwhile, at home, Michael's parents are concerned about their son's behavior. His dad goes through the fridge and wonders why there's a few too many beers missing, while his mom passes this off as her husband not remembering how much he drank the day before. Corey knows something isn't quite right with Michael, but decides not to rat her brother out, and passes it off as nothing despite also being worried about him. Pooh then approaches her and questions her about Michael, which she responds to by saying she doesn't want to get Michael into trouble. However, Pooh tries to reason with her, as he tries to convince her to tell One of Michael's frenemies offers him crack as the next step up from smoking pot. Everyone in this group is completely on board to smoke crack with no hesitation. A girl in this friend group later offers to get them some crack if they can scrounge $10, and pressures him into giving them money for crack rock. He hesitates because that is “hard stuff,” so his friend runs away with his wallet, and Michael falls into the ninja turtles' open manhole while chasing her. Michaelangelo chews out our young hero, and the genetically mutated turtle that eats nothing but pizza, quickly hands Michael off to the muppet babies by pulling a giant plug that sends Michael and Smoke falling into a roller coaster that is riding through the messed up catacombs that is his brain. Kermit and Piggy are along for the ride, so that they can show him what drugs do to his brain. The muppet babies, Huey, Dewey, Louie, and the gang sing about "a million wonderful ways to say no." At the end of the song, Piggy eventually loses her temper, ninja kicks the camera, and shatters the glass. After that, Michael finally wakes up back at home. After abusing Corey, he begins to finally realize that maybe he's gone too far with the drugs, but Smoke tries to convince him he's done no harm. But his reassurance is cut short, as Michael finds himself in a crazy little carnival of horrors, and goes through a funhouse filled with buzzsaws and other deadly traps. This carnival was created by the cartoon all stars, who now are seemingly tired of nagging him to change his ways, and decided to try and murder him by physically assaulting him and threatening his life, from trying to run him over with roller coasters, to him being sucked through a straw in Piggy's soda cup and is almost eaten by her, but she spits him out of her mouth. Inside a hall of mirrors, ALF shows Michael his reflection of how he is today, then his reflection if he does not stop taking drugs: an aged, corpse-like version of himself that will turn him into the Cryptkeeper. When Michael insists that he could quit if he wants to and that he is in charge of his own life, ALF takes him to see the "man in charge" — Smoke. Michael runs into a tent, and runs into a fortune teller, who happens to be Daffy Duck. Daffy shows him his future, which is his full on transformation into the Cryptkeeper. The Cartoon All Stars take one last effort to turn Michael. It finally works, as Michael finally exits insano land. Corey and Pooh re-enter Michael's room and find his marijuana box. Smoke appears and throws Pooh inside a cabinet and starts tempting Corey into trying the drug. Corey reasons that if she does what Michael does, then maybe they could have fun together, like they used to before he started doing drugs. Michael comes back into his bedroom, just in time to stop Corey from using the drugs herself. He tells her that he never wants to see her end up like him, and admits he was wrong, though he is unsure if he can change. She advises him to talk about his problems to their parents and to her. Smoke tries to persuade him otherwise, but Michael throws him out of the window, as he feels that he "listened to him long enough." After falling in a garbage truck, Smoke vows to return saying that Michael "can bet on it!"; while Corey says that if he does come back, they'll "be prepared". The special ends with Michael letting Pooh out of the cabinet and Michael and Corey go tell their parents about Michael's drug problem, while Pooh jumps into a poster on the wall with the other cartoon characters. Cast of characters The characters, from 10 different franchises, are: ALF: The Animated Series: ALF Alvin And The Chipmunks: Alvin, Simon, and Theodore DuckTales: Huey, Dewey, and Louie Garfield And Friends: Garfield Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: Bugs Bunny, and Daffy Duck. Wile E. Coyote is mentioned; his time machine was used by Bugs. Muppet Babies: Baby Kermit, Baby Piggy, and Baby Gonzo The New Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh: Winnie the Pooh and Tigger The Real Ghostbusters: Slimer The Smurfs: Papa Smurf, Brainy Smurf, Hefty Smurf. Though Smurfette is seen on the poster and the cover of the VHS, she actually does not appear in the special. Baby Smurf and Harmony Smurf make brief cameos in one of the comic books in Corey's room. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Michaelangelo. Although he appears in the special, he is not shown on the poster or VHS cover. Trivia The various characters' owners allowed the use of the characters for free because of the public service aspect of the special.